First Sentence

"While adopting the basic structure of the form of greeting current at his time, Paul injects new meaning into this form of greeting by (a) always replacing the general "greetings" (chairein) with "grace to you" (charis hymin), (b) frequently adding some description of the sender and of the recipients, and (c) occasionally anticipating the contents of the letter in summary fashion by what he says in the salutation (as in v. 4 here)."